The last remark in the preceding chapter was elicited by the appearance of a stranger, who, at the moment of its utterance, rode up to the station, and knocked at the open door of the house. Upon being desired in the stentorian voice of the owner of the place, from the room in which he sat, to "come in," a rather gentlemanly-looking man of about the middle height and relative age, presented himself before the conclave; and said: "I have to apologize, gentlemen, for intruding upon your privacy; have I the pleasure of addressing Dr. Graham?"

"That is my appellation," replied the individual in question.

"And mine, sir, is Moffatt, of the Sydney firm of that name, wool-buyers; possibly it may be known to you. I am purchasing wool, and if you have not already disposed of your clip, will be happy to make you an offer. I have come over-land, right through the New England district, and having consumed more time on the road than I intended, I find I am rather late for the stations in these northern parts; they having got most of their clips away."

"Well, sir, I have got mine off too; all but a few bales," replied the proprietor of Clintown.

"If you have not already made any arrangements relative to its disposal," remarked the buyer, "I can judge of your clip by what you have remaining, and make you an offer for the whole; and, if we come to terms, you can intimate the sale to your agents before its arrival at port, and instruct them to deliver it to my order."

"All right," exclaimed the squatter, "we'll talk about business presently; join us in a nobbler, there is the bottle. You will find a glass over there," and he pointed to an hermaphrodite piece of furniture, standing at one side of the room.

The stranger thanked his host, and taking his seat, while he assisted himself to a "stiff ball," said, "Pray, don't let me disturb the conversation that you were engaged in at the moment of my abrupt entrance."

"Well," said Brown, "to resume our topic, I differ from you Doctor. I don't think we, even as a class, would be benefited by a return of the old penal system, and I will tell you why. In the first place, I don't believe that their labour was cheaper than that of free men, for never could the convicts be made to do a proper amount of work; they had no will to do so. What they did was only what the compulsory system had the power of enforcing; just so much as not to be actual idleness, which they were only too ready to indulge in when they momentarily escaped the strict surveillance of the overseers; who frequently were necessarily men of their own class, and connived with them in their derelictions. Besides, then we were never free from bush-rangers, and, with all practicable vigilance, sometimes the convicts would escape to the bush, and continually place our lives and properties in danger; so all things considered, bad as our straits now are, I would not wish to see a return of the penal times."

"You have forgotten to mention another drawback to the system," suggested the stranger, "and that is the immoral influence such a class of men have upon the community, and the contamination to which your family is liable."

"Hang the immoral influence, as you call it," exclaimed the Doctor; "whose morals are they going to effect, I should like to know? Ours? my word! if we can't take care of them, I would ask you, who can?"

"By Jove! Graham," exclaimed Smithers, laughing, "it would be hard for any fellow to vitiate yours."

At this sally of Bob's, the man of physic laughed too, and replied: "Well, I mean the prisoners have only got themselves to mix with, so what signifies any consideration for their morals; they can't make themselves worse than they were when they are first convicted."

"There, sir, you are mistaken," said Moffatt. "You will admit that there were many who were serving their time as convicted felons who had come to that position by some false step in life, of which they deeply repented; but that, being mixed up with the vilest ruffians indiscriminately, they were subjected to this immoral influence of which I speak. We are perfectly aware that many (but for their one offence) honourable and exemplary men, who would scorn to do even a mean action, as derogatory to their natures, have been so subjected; and what has been the result of their contact with these vilest of the vile—villains whose hearts and souls were devoted to the practice of infamy—wretches, whose hearts, as Tom Hood said, were "inscribed with double guilt?" Has it not been a general debasement, and a levelling in most instances of the would be virtuous, to the standard of the despicable criminals themselves? I know it has been argued by many that an honourable man would shun the influence of such; and that the ruffians themselves, having no kindred feelings with their conscientious companions, would not trouble them, but afford the penitent every opportunity of avoiding a contact. But it was not so. What escape had a man of feeling, education, and penitential desire, from society such as was general among the convicts? None! He was compelled to endure it; and, upon a perpetual exhibition of vice and infamy before his eyes, hearing it highly spoken of, joked upon, and even lauded, he too frequently ceased to abhor it; began by degrees to look upon it with a callous indifference, and then to acquire, and practise, what before the very contemplation of would have been revolting to his nature; and ultimately he became as hardened a wretch as any of the rest. I say this was too frequently the case; and only shows that there was an immoral influence at work, even amongst the prisoners themselves. The employers of the men were sufferers by it likewise; for, by the cultivation of penitence in a willing subject, the employer secured the services of a valuable servant; whereas if the moral dispositioned man became as debased as the vile ones he was as unprofitable as they. But the evils of the system, in a moral point of view, were more particularly felt by the employers in the fearful example made to their families. Just picture to yourself rearing a young family subject to the dreadful contamination of such a school; the influences of which tuition all the academies of punctilio in the universe would be unable to eradicate. Happily for us, and for posterity, those times are past and never can nor will return, however much individuals in certain classes may desire. The mass of the population would never permit the re-introduction of such an incubus on civilisation, Christianity, and morality; but pardon me, sir, I am warming on the subject; it is one I have always abhorred, for I have constantly witnessed its fearful iniquities."

"What you say," replied Dr. Graham, "may be all very well with regard to people that have families and live in towns; but you must remember that squatters are the stay of the colony, and must be supported. What would the colonies be but for their exports of wool? and how, I would like to know, is that staple commodity to be obtained if the squatters are not enabled to procure labour? At present we pay higher wages than any other country in the world, notwithstanding which we cannot get sufficient labour to do our work. It is a question that affects the entire country; for if we do not get labour our staples will decrease, and that, you will admit, will be a public calamity. The long and the short of the matter is simply this, we must have labour, and the government must exert itself to procure it. If it does not, we ought to advocate a return of convicts."

"Well, sir," replied Moffatt, "I don't pretend to dictate to you personally, presuming that you are the best judge of your own affairs. Wages in the colonies are certainly high, but then the employers can well afford to pay the high rates; and, but in these remote parts, I have heard few complaints of the scarcity of labour. Until your district becomes more settled you will have to expect it, for it is one of the inconveniences of an unsettled country; but as soon as it becomes better known and more occupied, I think you will find that labour, as in everything else where there is a supply and demand, will find its own level."

"That's very true," said Brown, "but, remember in the meantime, we are sufferers; what are we to do?"

"I can scarcely tell you," said the other, "but fear you will have to put up with it. It is, as I have said, a contingent incidental on your remote location. You can't force labourers to settle in a country, of which they know little, and that little disparaging. You must offer some inducements to tempt men out into these wilds other than high wages. What militates considerably against you, I imagine, is the current belief that the blacks are rather dangerous neighbours."

"It is all very well for people that are not affected as we are, to tell us we must put up with it," said Brown; "but, assuming that labour would find its own level as you state; that is, I imagine, by offering security against the blacks, if we admitted that the blacks were dangerous (though we deny it); does it not follow, that we, in these districts, are entitled to some consideration on the part of our rulers? We contribute to the support of the state, and are therefore entitled to protection from the government; but are we likely to get that? I don't believe it. We are just allowed to struggle on as best we can. But it will result in this; we will have to take the remedy into our own hands; labour we must have, and if our own countrymen will not accept our employment, even at exorbitant wages, we will have to procure it from some foreign source."

"May I enquire," said Mr. Moffatt, "the source you would propose?"

"It is immaterial which," replied Brown; "whatever would be found the most advantageous, the people that would be most industrious, and whose labour could be obtained at the cheapest rate of wage. I have often been at a loss to understand why the Victorian government has adopted such stringent laws to endeavour to keep the Chinese out of Melbourne. They are essentially an industrious class of people, and just the very sort of men we want; they make excellent shepherds, more attentive to their work than Europeans, less difficult to please in their rations, and can be obtained at far less wages."

"I can enlighten you," said the wool-buyer, "if you are ignorant as to the reason of the Victorian people desiring a restriction on the immense influx of Chinese immigrants. They have been landed in that colony in thousands, and may be said, though forming an integral part of our population, to be a distinct people and nation. They speak their own language only, have their own religion, are proverbially the laziest, filthiest, and most immoral people contained in the state, and come without their females. So that they do not settle amongst us; but those that are sufficiently fortunate to make money return with their gains to their own country to excite the avarice of their countrymen; while those that are not successful are left to starve and die, or commit depredations on our settlers. They swarm together in large numbers in small tenements in our large towns; and, by their vice and filth, generate noisome diseases amongst themselves, and pestilence in the neighbourhood in which they live; and their abodes and their persons are alike mephitic. They are in fact the scum of our population, and far more degraded even than the denizens of the vilest purlieus of Britain's metropolis. They, as doubtless you are aware, live and migrate in large bodies, from one to other of the diggings, blighting each locality in their transient passage, as swarms of locusts. They stab one another, and commit murder amongst themselves, of which the authorities never hear. They commit depredations on the whites, for which they are never punished from the difficulty in detecting the delinquent; and, as I said before, they spread disease wherever they go. They are therefore no benefit to the country; for, with the exception of rice and opium, they consume no mercantile commodities, but annually drain a considerable quantity of gold from it. It is considering these facts, and that they are filling places that could be advantageously occupied by our own countrymen, that the colonists of Victoria have attempted to restrict their entrance into the country, by the exaction of a ten pound poll-tax. I am only sorry to see that the example is not followed by the other colonies, for while Victoria stands alone, she will never succeed in keeping the evil away."

"And I am very glad to think the other colonies are liberal-minded enough not do so," said Brown. "You will please to bear in mind that this is a free country, and it is a lasting disgrace to Victoria that she refuses admission to any foreigner. The government of Great Britain might as well attempt to exclude certain people or classes from the asylum of her shores."

"No, sir," replied Moffatt, "there it does not signify. Her own population would more than counterbalance any influx; but here it is different. The news of our gold fields, spread by rumour, and the return of successful diggers to China, have generated a spirit of adventure in that country which shows itself in the emigration of swarms of her people to our shores. Already as many as sixty thousand Chinamen are in Victoria; and they being acknowledged an inferior and by no means desirable class of settlers, even if they remained, it was deemed expedient to stop or at least check their immigration. As the complaint was desperate, so, necessarily, was the remedy. As you say their entrance into the country could not be prohibited, so the tax was levied on them to discourage their coming."

"And I think it was a most iniquitous tax," said Brown. "It has been urged against the Chinamen that they consume nothing but rice, and that on the diggings they are in the way of British colonization. Now it is a proverbial fact that they are ousted from all good 'claims;' which, if of any value, are instantly 'jumped' by the diggers, while the poor Chinamen are forced to take up the abandoned and worked out 'claims,' where Europeans have found a continuation of labour unprofitable. On the yield from these holes they manage to live, so it is evident that instead of their being a curse to the country, as has been affirmed, they are positively a benefit; for the gold, if they do take any out of the country, is only that which, but for them, would never have been extracted from the earth."

"That is a perfect fallacy," replied the other; "Chinamen will no more work on bad ground than white men; and as to their working abandoned 'claims' that is a thing that is done every day now; for formerly, when the diggings were in their glory, claims yielding what would now be considered 'paying quantities,' were thrown up by their holders for some more promising ground. But in these times diggers are content to try over all the old ground; so the assertion that the practice is confined to the Chinese is fallacious."

"However, be it as it may," said Brown, "the Chinese have a perfect right to come here if they please; and I should like to see them landing in Moreton Bay in as many thousands as they do in Melbourne. Then we should have an opportunity of getting shepherds, whereas now we experience considerable difficulty. Some of the settlers on the northern part of the coast have for sometime agitated the question of the introduction of coolie or Chinese labour into those parts; arguing that the climate is admirably adapted for the growth of cotton and sugar, though too tropical for the European to labour at agriculture in the sun. It would, however suit those accustomed to such a temperature; and without them the resources of the country will never be developed. I perfectly agree with them, and think the introduction of some cheap labour, such as that, would be of immense advantage to the country."

"I must again differ from you, sir," said the stranger; "their introduction would be of incalculable mischief to the entire colony."

"How so?" asked the other, "will you explain?"

"Certainly," replied Mr Moffatt; "it would little matter to you, perhaps, who only want to realise your fortune, and return with it to your native land. But how different is it with the labouring man who settles here with the intention of making this his home for the remainder of his days? Let us consider the prospect it offers to the colony in this light. It is argued that the northern parts of this island are possessed of a climate that will not admit of the manual labour of Europeans; and that without the introduction of tropical labour the country must remain unproductive. Now, admitting this theory, it naturally follows that, with the exception of owners of property and capitalists, the population would be a mixed and foreign one; and would form a state peculiar in itself, and different in its language and manners from the other colonies. This, be it remembered, in the midst of a British colony, inhabited by the Anglo-Saxon race. Now, it must be manifest that this people, forming no inconsiderable part of our population, must be either admitted to the privileges of British subjects, or governed as a conquered race or an inferior people. Assuming, then, that they are to be recognised as a class of free immigrants, which is in accordance with your own opinion, they at once become colonists, over whose actions we have no undue control. They would be entitled to all the privileges of our constitution, and, consequently, could not be debarred the exercise of the franchise. To say nothing of the absurdity of having a Chinaman or coolie returned to a seat in our legislature, and other incongruities; what would be the effect of their introduction upon our own working population? we will see. This desirable class of labourers with whom you desire to inundate us, we will assume, are introduced into the country in swarms, ostensibly for the cultivation of tropical produce in the northern latitudes of this colony. They are engaged at wages commensurate to the exigencies of competition, so as, as you say, to enable the cultivator to develop the resources of the country by raising a marketable commodity to compete with the slave-grown produce of the western hemisphere. What is the result? Is it to our advantage? Certainly not! The value of our exports are increased, you say, but at what a fearful sacrifice? Granted that these coolies are engaged, and for a period of years say, and that they are bound stringently by penalties to the terms of their agreement. To enforce this, or even to carry on your work, you must have the services of some interpreter; at whose mercy you must ever be, even if you are so fortunate as to obtain one. I would ask you, then, what security have you for the due performance of your labourers' contract? None but their agreement. And how can you in a court of law prove its legality, or the liability of the contracting party, when that party is totally unacquainted with your language and you with his; and he does not admit its validity? But even granting that one or two refractory coolies could be subdued, where would be your remedy if scores or hundreds repudiated their contracts, and refused to work for you at the wages offered to them? That they would so refuse I am firmly convinced, for we are all aware that two differently remunerated classes of labour of the same description co-existent is incompatible with the laws that govern commerce; and men would be found, as you yourself have admitted, who would be ready to obtain their services in other capacities by the offer of higher wages; while the coolies, in their turn, would readily accept an improvement in their positions, without considering the violation of their contract, the nature of which they would doubtless have but an imperfect idea, if not be entirely ignorant. Thus they would be continually drawn off from their intended occupation to fill positions to the exclusion of the white man; and the cotton and sugar cultivator would require to give an equivalent to the European's wages, or supply the places of those who abscond by a fresh importation. In such an emergency it is more than probable that the latter would be the course adopted. Hence we would have a perpetual influx of these undesirable immigrants, who would merely serve a probationary term with their importers, and then mix with our white population on terms of equality. Is it not evident then that Asiatic labour would be brought into direct competition with European? and who can deny that the result would not be disastrous to the latter? Some strait-laced philosophers and fireside philanthropists, who see the miseries of their fellow-creatures through the beeswing of their after-dinner potations, dictate the means for the amelioration of the sufferings of their race with the same self-sufficient spirit that they rule the destinies of their own household. These argue that the introduction of the heathen immigrants to our shores would be an inestimable blessing to humanity, and add an additional lustre to the cause of Christianity, by the intercourse of the two races, and a consequent enlightenment and christianizing of the disciples of feticism. But this I deny, for debase the European labourer by reducing his means to that of the Asiatic (which I affirm would be the consequence of this influx), and instead of the latter being elevated to the level of the former, the former would be rather dragged down to that of the latter. Without going so far as to question the omnipotence of the Almighty I firmly believe that the moral condition of the Asiatic would not be ameliorated in the slightest degree by the contact; while humanity and Christianity would receive a blow in the demoralization of our countrymen. Depend upon it, sir, the expediency of the introduction of cheap labour is a fallacy; whereas the very existence of our religion, and the realization of our future greatness, depend upon the settlement of the wastes of our colony by a thorough British population."

"But, my good sir," said Brown, "how do you reconcile to your objection the thesis that, as the European cannot labour in field service in the tropical heat of the northern part of our colony, without the assistance of Asiatic labour the productions of our land will lay dormant?"

"That," replied the other, "I also deny. I believe European labour is practicable in our climate, even in the remote north; and in support of my belief I could name numerous precedents. Was it not a Spanish population that peopled South America? an European that later settled Texas? and is even now (I allude more particularly to the Germans) growing cotton in that province to compete with the slave-grown produce of the States? Have not the French settled Algiers, and cultivated its soil, even producing that desired staple, cotton? But to come nearer home; have not our own brave countrymen in India incontestably proved, in the trials of the last fearful campaign, without having been inured to the climate, the capability of the Englishman to withstand its heat?"

"But still," said Brown, "the price at which we purchase our labour would never enable us to cultivate either sugar or cotton profitably. We must have cheap labour to perform the work; and, for my own part, I can't see but that, if coolies be introduced into the country as labourers for a specific purpose, they could be compelled by the law of the land to continue at that labour. If the introduction for that purpose is found desirable, the practice of their immigration could be legalized by an enactment that at the same time would bind them to the species of work for which they were engaged, and make their hire or employment for any other purpose, or in any other part of the country beyond the tropical boundary, a felony punishable by a heavy penalty."

"That was just the point I was coming to," replied Mr. Moffatt; "but first I will answer your previous objection. It is practicable for Europeans to cultivate the soil to the northward, though they will do so in the manner most advantageous to themselves. If they find the cultivation of cotton and sugar unprofitable they will turn their attention to other products; but I am inclined to believe that cotton could be profitably cultivated even by our own expensive labour. I have a friend, resident in the vicinity of Brisbane, who has grown some cotton as an experiment, and the result, even in this temperate climate, has been most satisfactory. The cotton he sent home was submitted to some of the first judges in Manchester and Liverpool, who pronounced it of the finest sea-island description, and superior to any obtained from the United States. Now this cotton was cultivated from the ordinary American sea-island seed; so that its fineness arose, not from any excellence in its germ, but the peculiar adaptation and efficiency of the soil in which it was grown; and which does not differ from the land on our entire coast line. This shows that our cotton would be of superior quality, and consequently of greater value. Another fact to be remembered is this, that in 'the States,' owing to the frost and severity of the winter, the plant is only an annual; while with us, as my friend has discovered, from the absence of frost the cotton tree becomes a perennial, and increases its yield each season; while the staple does not deteriorate in quality. Thus, it will be seen, we should have considerable advantage in the cost of production over the American planter; notwithstanding his slave labour. But to return to the coolies; with regard to their forced compliance with the terms of their agreements,—to effect which, you say, certain enactments would have to be passed to meet the exigencies of the case,—I believe the first step would be the dismemberment of those districts from the parent colony, and their erection into a separate state; so as to preserve the stringencies necessary in its government from infringing the constitution of the other colonies. Now in this new state the preponderance of the population would be black, who would in fact comprise all the working part of it; and it would necessarily follow that the government of the state would be comprised of the employers of this very labour, their servants, or sycophants, or at least those whose interests would be intimately connected with theirs. So that they might be necessarily expected to legislate so as to entirely meet their own views, and subvert the rights and freedom of their foreign labourers. The system would then descend into a compulsory labour; and, but for its name, would in nowise differ from slavery; worse in fact than actual slavery, from the fact of the stimulus of protection to one's own property being wanting in this case, that would in the other act as a preventive against unusual tyranny and oppression. So that the right of disposal by death, might reasonably be expected, would be exercised almost with impunity. Depend upon it, sir, such a system would give rise to a state of things, not only deplorable, but derogatory to a Christian nation. But I am convinced it never would gain the countenance or consent of the home government, who, for its own honour, could not tolerate the introduction of coolie labour on such terms; and our own population would never suffer its introduction on terms of equality."

"Well, sir," replied Brown, "though I don't admit myself a convert to your way of thinking, I still believe there is some truth in your arguments; but the thing we can't get over is the want of a labouring population here in the bush; and if we can't induce our own countrymen to emigrate we must try others."

"Believe me, sir," said Mr. Moffatt, "it is not a want of inclination that deters thousands of Britain's redundant population from flocking to our shores; it is the supineness of our short-sighted government, who, instead of creating a fund for the introduction of an agricultural population by the sale of the waste lands of the colony, or by the grant to every immigrant of a piece of land equivalent in value to the amount he has paid for his passage, lock up the lands from agricultural settlers in the fear lest their interests should clash with the pastoral. This suicidal policy has long been manifest; in no way more so than by the fact that we are obliged to depend upon a foreign supply for our very articles of common consumption; whereas nowhere could they be produced with greater advantage than within our own territory. By all accounts you are likely, in this district, to be separated from New South Wales; and one of your first acts in your legislative independence should be to facilitate the settlement of your agricultural lands. The two interests, that and the pastoral, may be separately maintained without detriment to either, and with immense advantage to the state."

"Oh, hang these politics!" cried Graham; "sink all dry arguments just now, you have made me quite thirsty with merely hearing your clatter. Never mind the agricultural lands, coolies, or Chinamen, though I would be very happy to see them and hope we will be able to get a supply of them soon. We will just polish off another bottle of grog, while we screw a spree out of Smithers here." With this little prologue he left the room for a few minutes, returning with a bottle which he placed on the table, and took his seat while he continued: "Bob tells me he is going to 'put his foot into it.' You know he has long been engaged to that niece of Rainsfield's (a deuced fine girl, by Jove!), and he states he is to be married in about a month. Now I say, if he does not give us a spree before he throws us overboard, we will cut him as dead as a herring after he is 'spliced.' What do you say, Brown?"

"Most assuredly," replied that individual, "Smithers ought to entertain his bachelor friends before he withdraws himself from their clique; and I have no doubt he will."

"He tells me too," said the Doctor, "that those young fellows at Fern Vale have behaved scurvily to him, that one of them has tried to cut him out, and striven hard to set the girl against him. Now I would propose that Smithers give a spree at Brompton, and get his brother to invite the guests for him; then he would be able to have his girl and her friends there, and these young Fergusons too. We could have some glorious fun, get up some races or something of that sort, to please the women and amuse ourselves; besides, it would answer the purpose of showing off his girl and introducing her to his friends, at the same time that it would annoy his rival. And for the matter of that we might oblige him by picking a quarrel with young Ferguson, and giving the fellow a good drubbing, just for the satisfaction of the thing. Eh, gad! Bob must promise to give us a spree, or we won't let him out of this house. It is not often one of our fellows gets spliced; and we can't lose one without a jollification. You had better promise at once, Bob."

"Well, for my part," replied Bob, "I would give you a spree in a minute, but how am I to get it up? I would not know who to ask; and, besides, no one would come to my invitation except such fellows as you, who would drink all day, or until you had drained the house dry of liquor."

"Get your brother to do it," replied the Doctor, "and work round to the blind side of his wife. I'll be bound she's woman enough to join in it heartily; the mere prospect of the thing will be sufficient inducement to make her fall into your views; and depend upon it she will not only undertake the whole affair, but get together a good company for you."

"But there is another thing," urged Bob, "if we are to invite fifty or a hundred people to our place we will have to find quarters for most of them, and how shall we manage that?"

"Nothing easier in the world," replied the contumacious Doctor; "give up all your spare room to the women folks, and we fellows can shake down anywhere, camp under a tree if you like; or those that don't like that, let them take the wool-shed."

"Well, I'll see if the thing can be managed," replied Bob, "and let you know in good time."